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BELLEVUE, WA – Today’s override by the Tennessee Legislature of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s veto of a bill allowing law-abiding citizens to carry firearms into restaurants and bars that serve alcohol will help dispel the myth that armed citizens cannot be trusted in such environments, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms stated.

The new statute retains the prohibition against armed citizens actually consuming alcohol, and it also allows restaurants to ban guns in their establishments. It takes effect on July 14 following a bipartisan 21-9 override vote in the Senate Thursday.

“For years, the gun prohibitionist lobby has perpetuated a sense of fear against armed citizens in various public venues, including restaurants,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Yet in Washington State, where the Citizens Committee is headquartered, it has been legal for many years to carry firearms in restaurants that serve alcohol, and it has not resulted in the kind of violence predicted by opponents of the Tennessee measure.

“We are in agreement with Senator Doug Jackson,” he continued, “who correctly told reporters that this bill has been falsely portrayed as creating a threat to public safety and that is nonsense. We believe that, given time, the public will realize that all of the inflammatory rhetoric was nothing more than a campaign of manufactured hysteria.”

Seventeen Republicans and four Democrats voted for the override, while nine Democrats opposed it.

“Licensed citizens all across the country exercise their right of self defense while dining in restaurants that serve alcohol,” noted CCRKBA Legislative Director Joe Waldron. “These citizens are a model of constraint. It will be no different in Tennessee.”

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
is one of the nation’s premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is
dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots
organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States. The Citizens Committee can be
reached by phone at (425) 454-4911, on the Internet at www.ccrkba.org or by email
to InformationRequest@ccrkba.org.